Were the English Colonists Guilty of Genocide?

The early 1600s brought the first European settlers to the Americas, and on arriving they found the land inhabited by thousands of Native Americans. The colonists' lack of knowledge about the land and people led to a series of disputes to ensure the colonists' safety. Unfortunately, this eventually led to genocide, an act of hatred directed towards the natives, but undeniable because overtime the colonists began to kill for sport rather then defense against the Indians' attacks.

By 1607, when the European colonists arrived at Jamestown, the Pequots numbered 14,000, but in the next hundred years that number would decrease by ninety-five percent, leaving a mere 600 survivors. The Abenaki group of Vermont and New Hampshire decreased ninety-eight percent, with 250 left alive. These death tolls are just a couple of the many that occurred, and sadly most of the decrease in the Natives' population happened before the epidemics raged. This leads one to believe that it was the colonists' influence on the Natives that led to such a drastic population increase. Then, in the mid 1630s, the natives suffered another population decrease due to the many diseases that were threatening many Indians. Many of the Puritans felt that the epidemics' effects were a gift from God, and that the Indians were the Devil's workers.

In 1636, a Pequot was accused of murdering a colonist. The settlers went on a rampage to seek revenge. They burned the natives' villages, and shot and killed many leaving only seven to escape. One year later, during the Pequot War, the colonists killed all but five natives when raiding their fort. This slaughter was described as "a sweet sacrifice" and the colonists "gave praise thereof to God." (-C. Mather) It appears that these two raids happened when the colonists feared for their safety. One could argue though that the colonists went overboard. After all, they had no proof that a Pequot had murdered a colonist; what gave them the right to act merely on a...

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...﻿Genocide is generally defined as “the intentional destruction of a particular race, ethnicity, religious group, or nationality” 1 and it is probably as old as human beings. We can be sure that somewhere way back in the beginning of humans, some primitive people picked up their stone axes and spears and set off to wipe out another tribe. In fact, many anthropologists think this is probably what happened to Neanderthals. Was it the differences between our species and the Neanderthals that caused us to wipe them out? Was it because of a competition for land and resources? Maybe we will never learn. However, in more recent ages of history these have been normal excuses for genocide, along with, religious, political, and racial reasons like the Holocaust that I shall write about in this essay. Sometimes it can be just one of these things and sometimes it can be a mixture of them. At any rate, in my opinion there is never a good excuse for causing genocide and international organizations need to do whatever they can to stop them from happening again.
When people hear the word genocide, most of us think of The Holocaust. But the Holocaust might be unique in history because it is one of the only genocides that we know of that was caused by the hatred of one man for a single race of humans, that is, Hitler and his hatred of the Jews. Of course, there were historical and economic factors that...

...﻿MD Rahatin Hassan
English- 1302-
15 October 2014
Genocide
Millions of people have been killed all the way through history by their government or rulers. There are many reasons to hate them like nationality, race, diversity, religion and ethnicity. Global problems have many causes and effects as well. One of the global problems that have affected the world history is genocide. In 1941 Raphael Lemkin a polish Jewish created the term genocide by combining Greek words “genos” which means race and “cide” which means killing. In history genocide has been repeated several times. Nationalism is one of the major causes of genocide. Nationalism is like faith that people should have with whom they share their culture or religion in order to they can help each other at any problem. Mainly nationalism unities people of same religion or culture. It is said that less advanced people cannot do anything without the help of a stronger advanced nation. One of the wickedest crime that government can do to counter the citizen is genocide. Genocide is a crime which is against humanity. The powerful people target those kinds of people who are week and ruled by them from the beginning. If any kind of group people gain some powers than they thought to defeat those people who are weaker than them so that they can be safe in future as Adlof Hitler did with the Holocaust. . According to...

...1. Spaniards and English immigrants wereguilty of genocide against Native Americans
“Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians. I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God’s Heaven to kill them.” This statement was said by Colonel John Chivington. He was celebrated as hero after killing dozens of Indian women and children. In the early history of our nation, genocide against Native American was almost encouraged by the authorities. Native Americans were victims of many atrocities after the colonization of America, we’ll be discussing two situations that I personally believe can summarize the genocide against Native Americans; The Trail of Tears and the Massacre of Sand Creek.
The Trail of Tears is the forced relocation of Native Americans after the Indian Removal Act was signed by the President Andrew Jackson in 1830. Cherokee, Muscogee, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Choctaw tribes were removed into Indian Territory. Of course, they were not treated well while relocating; they suffered starvation and diseases which lead to the death of many Native Americans.
In addition to relocating, they also suffered massacres like the Massacre of Sand Creek also known as the Chivington Massacre because of the colonel guiding the soldiers who committed this crime; John Chivington. This event occurred in Colorado on...

...The unjust rules and regulations imposed on the American colonists through the 1760s and 70s inevitably caused the Revolution to occur, and Britain to lose one of their most profitable settlements. The question is not if the colonists had a lack of liberties, but the fact that the government, over 3000 miles away, were controlling some of the most important freedoms they came to cherish. When the colonies emerged at first, the colonists obeyed the control of Great Britain as they had the mentality that they would need the support of a strong empire to make their settlements develop (Doc I). Yet as the colonies realized that they could support themselves and still prosper, there was a detachment towards the motherland. In other words, the forefathers' actions, or lack of action, was dependent on the circumstance of prosperity towards the original colonies. They felt that revolt too early, would in fact, deter the growth of which was desired by all.
Once the colonies developed enough so that they could corroborate themselves, the need for a motherland was reduced. When Great Britain and Parliament realized the salutary neglect they imposed on the colonies and the obvious effect on the colonists, they proceeded to tighten their grip on the colonies. Along with external taxes, Parliament subjected the colonies to internal taxes meant to decrease growth potential, especially economic potential (Doc...

...﻿“A PERFECT WORLD IS A WORLD WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION”
I partially disagree about this topic “a perfect world is a world without discrimination”. Discrimination is treating people by their differences. We all need a world with good discrimination, not bad discrimination. In this Essay I’m going to discuss three reasons to support my arguments. Vincent’s discriminated in Gattaca is a bad form, will discrimination still exists in today’s world, and also racism is important form of discrimination. Imagine a future without discrimination or lack of understands. Discrimination has always existed in society. In today’s world discrimination will continuously be part of nature and is necessary as I will outline.
Vincent is in-valid and he faces genetic discrimination and prejudice in the movie Gattaca. The only way he can achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut is to become Valid, a person who impersonates a “valid” with a superior genetic profile. Discrimination in Gattaca is so logical, “I belonged to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the color of your skin. No, we now have discrimination down to a science.” This quote shows us that Vincent is having a hard time of achieve his dream. Vincent almost takes it granted in his daily life. But in the end he achieves his long-life dream of becoming an astronaut is to break the law and impersonate a “valid”. Vincent’s successes at Gattaca space preforms better the Irene –who is a “valid”, and shows that...

...Lake" and "On My First Sonne" both look at the effects of tragedy and near tragedy on a relationship. "Cold Knap Lake" seems to be about 2 parent child relationships, the one between Gillian and her own mother whom she describes as a "heroine" for saving "a stranger's child", and the second between the rescued little girl and her parents who inexplicably "thrashed her for almost drowning". What we can't know, because Gillian Clarke doesn't know it, is why the parents thrashed the little girl. Were they just violent and inadequate parents punishing misbehaviour, or was this the irrational and shocked reaction of normally loving parents who wanted to teach their daughter never to go near a lake again? The other poem where tragedy does strike, unfortunately with no happy outcome, is "on My First Sonne", where Ben Jonson has to learn to re-evaluate the relationship he had with his dead 7 year old boy:
"My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy"
The tragedy in this poem is the father's guilty realisation that he had too many expectations of his only child and this is something which, ironically, he could only learn through his death. The child's death also teaches him something else:
"... what he loves may never like too much"
Such is the pain of this child's loss that Jonson vows he will never make himself so vulnerable to love ever again.
The final poem is "The Song of the Old Mother" which differs from the others as it does not...

...one thing I can actually control,” I think to myself. I know what I’m doing is wrong, mother made me read that book about the girl who drinks herself into a comma every night in order to forget about her abusive father, “aren’t you glad we are a normal family” she used to say when discussing the book with me; “if only you knew” I thought to myself.
I hear Alice rolling around in her bed, she always seems so fulfilled with things, helping mum around the house, chatting to her friends, singing in the shower, how does she do it? Always has the boys at school looking at her, not a negative bone in her body. Maybe that’s how it works though, all the good genes modeled into one child and a polar opposite created in the second. Perhaps if I were a little more like Alice; he wouldn’t see the need to try and get rid of me.
“Says there are a dozen or two.
So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.”
Staring at the family photo hung above the fireplace, these words of Sylvia Plath reminisce through my thoughts. Is this a common thing? Fathers finding the need to batter their daughters in order to live a balanced life, I don’t blame him though, even I find the practice of harming myself to be an essential, it’s just the way it is. As long as Alice and Mum are kept from it, I’d rather it be me than one of them, for this reason the nights he rages his anger and frustration upon me I seek...

...sector and even at supermarkets for instance by setting up fair and exhibitions.
In addition to local dress code and food culture, language is another culture that can be menaced by media. Firstly, the national language has been threatened because of promotion of English use with the development of media. Second, information by media is limited for poor students. In Brunei, bilingual education system began in 1945. With the increasing use of English, media has been developed as well in last thirty years. Consequently, people can access to English anytime and everywhere. For example, with the increase of TV channels with satellite people learned to watch more English TV programs and by the Internet, people came to get information over the world in English. It has helped students to improve their English skills. On the other hand, it means that they came to have less opportunity to touch Malay. Jones (2007) states that “A widely held concern twenty years ago (and one that is still widely held) was that learning anther language, especially one that is promoted and taught in schools, might be at the expense of one’s own culture and identity.” In summary, the spread of media has made English more popular and caused English to have menaced nation’s language in Brunei. Moreover, it takes money to access to media. Therefore, not everyone can afford to use them. For...